Container lifter being able to lift two 40 feet containers

ABSTRACT

The invention is related to a type of the container lifter which is able to lift two 4 feet containers at a time, it includes two sets of the crane main lifting mechanisms and the wire rope winding systems being separate, two cranes and drive cylinders, the pulleys arranged at the crane upper frame and the two lifting pulley groups arranged on the carrier. The first crane lifting mechanism and the second crane lifting mechanism are equipped with the barrel, the crane lifting mechanism motor, the brake and the crane lifting redection gear box respectively, the two sets of the crane lifting mechanism are synchronously operated, the approach and separation are achieved by the first crane and the second crane using the connection cylinder. The invention uses the two separate cranes, the functions of separation, differential in height, displacement, included angle and releasing of the two cranes are achieved by the cylinders, two 40 feet containers can be lifted, also the cylinders can be separated so that the separate operations of the two cranes can be obtained. By using the container lifter of the invention, the efficiency of the load and unload is increased, high repayment is obtained with less increasing the equipment cost, the larger beneficial result is occurred, also it has the wider applicable prospect.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2004/000825, filed on Jul. 19, 2004, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 03141943.7, filed Jul. 30, 2003, the contents of which are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention generally relates to lifting equipment, more specifically to a bank-run container lifter which is able to lift two 40 feet containers at a time.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

The increasing requirements of container transportation in the world and the continuous increment of the handling capacity of the container port put forward new and increased demands on the technical equipment for loading and unloading containers, and an urgent need for the design and development of high efficient bank-run container load and unload systems to meet the demand of the lifter productivity needed by the larger ships.

Currently, lifters are only able to lift only one 40 feet container at a time and its efficiency is low.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide a type of the container lifter which is able to lift two 40 feet containers at a time and to improve the low efficiency of the container lifter of the prior art which is able to lift only a single 40 feet container at a time.

The technical scheme of the invention is as follows:

A type of the container lifter which is able to lift two 40 feet container at a time comprises a crane main lifting mechanism and rope winding system, a crane and drive cylinder, and pulleys arranged at the crane upper frame and a lifting pulley group arranged on a carrier, it also includes a second crane lifting mechanism, a second crane and drive cylinder, the pulleys arranged at a second crane upper frame, a second crane lifting pulley group arranged on the carrier, and the main lifting wire rope winding system by which the first crane main lifting mechanism and the second crane main lifting mechanism being separate respectively are parallelly united; said first crane main lifting mechanism and the second crane main lifting mechanism are respectively equipped with a barrel, a crane lifting mechanism motor, a brake and a crane redection gear box, the two sets of the crane lifting mechanisms are synchronously operated, the approach and separation of the two cranes are achieved by the first crane and the second crane using a connection cylinder.

The highly efficient container load and unload equipment of the invention is able to lift two 40 feet containers at a time so that the efficiency of the load and unload operation is increased by at least 60% compared to the prior art, thus the high repayment is obtained with correspondingly less increase in the equipment cost, a beneficial result is obtained, also it has the wider applicable utility. The container lifter of the invention lifts two 40 feet containers at a time, and has overcome the following eight difficulties:

1. the change of the gap between two 40 feet containers;

2. the arrangement of two 40 feet containers;

3. the arrangement of two 40 feet containers in the length direction is a slightly trapezoid form;

4. the position deviation of two 40 feet containers in the length direction;

5. one end of the two 40 feet container being higher than another end of same (i.e. longitudinal slope);

6. the top planes of two 40 feet container are not horizontal, there is a angle between the top plane and a horizontal plane;

7. the two 40 feet containers are not aligned parallel with the main guided way of the container lifter;

8. the overloading of two 40 feet containers.

The invention uses two separate cranes, the functions of separation, differential in height, displacement, included angle and releasing of the two cranes are achieved by the cylinders, also the cylinders can be separated so that the separate operation of the two cranes can be obtained.

Each 40 feet container is driven by a separate main lifting mechanism and the wire rope winding system. The separation of the two 40 feet containers can be achieved by the cylinders connecting the two canes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF APPENDED DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the two crane connected to form a container lifter able to lift two 40 feet containers at a time according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view when the gap between the two cranes of the lifter is increased.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of two sets of the main lifting mechanisms of the cranes of the lifter in the machine room.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the arrangement of the carrier pulleys of the lifter.

FIG. 5 is a top schematic view of the arrangement of the carrier pulleys of the lifter.

FIG. 6 is a schematic assembly view of the main lifting wire rope winding system of the lifter.

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective of the main lifting wire rope winding system of the lifter.

RETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference to FIGS. 1 to 5, an example of the container lifter of the invention being able to lift two 40 feet container at a time is equipped with two separate sets of crane main lifting mechanisms and the wire rope winding system, as well as two cranes and drive cylinders connected mutually each other. The pulleys are arranged at a crane upper frame, as shown in FIG. 4, a first crane upper frame is designated by the reference number 3 and a second crane upper frame is designated by the reference number 4. Two sets of the lifting pulleys are arranged at a carrier, i.e. the set of lifting pulleys 5 used for the first crane 1 and the set of lifting pulleys 6 used for the second crane 2 (as shown in FIG. 5).

As shown in FIG. 3, the first crane main lifting mechanism 7 and the second crane main lifting mechanism 8 are equipped with the winding barrels 71,81, the first crane main lifting mechanism motor 71 and the second crane main lifting mechanism motor 81, brakes 73,83, and the first crane lifting redection gear box 74 and the second crane lifting redection gear box 84 respectively. The two sets of the first crane main lifting mechanism 7 and the second crane main lifting mechanism 8 are united in a parallel configuration by the main lifting wire rope winding system. A hydraulic station is designated by the reference number 9, the water side and the land side are designated by the reference number 10 and 11 respectively.

The two sets of crane main lifting mechanisms 7,8 are synchronously run by electrical synchronization or by mechanical synchronization so that the two sets of redection gear boxs are united as a set in order to operate two 40 feet containers. A single 40 feet container of 60 t under the crane is operated or two 20 feet containers of 60 t under the crane are operated when the weight of two 40 feet containers exceeds the designed value. The operation of a single 40 feet container of 60 t under the crane or the operation of two 20 feet containers of 60 t under the crane may be achieved by the separate individual use of the two sets of the main lifting mechanisms. If a redection gear box is shared between the two sets of main lifting mechanisms, the output of the redaction gear box and power mechanism is directed only to a set of the winding barrel.

As shown in FIG. 1, the approach and separation of the two cranes are achieved by the connection cylinder 15 between the first crane 1 and the second crane 2. The reference number 16 shows a displacement cylinder of the crane length direction in the figure. FIG. 2 shows the situation in which the two crane are spaced apart. The rectangles 17 show a single 40 feet container or two 20 feet containers in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The two 20 feet separable cranes and the upper frame are arranged at the water side and land side respectively, the two separable cranes are sphere-articulatedly connected by two parallel cylinders so as to achieve the approach and separation of the two cranes. The centre distance between the two cranes is 2500 mm when the two cranes are closed, the centre distance is 3700 mm when the two cranes are separated, thus the range of the gap between the two containers is from 0 to 1200 mm. The staggered position of the two cranes in the length direction is attained by the push of another cylinder, the range of the staggered position is from 0 to 400 mm.

The loading and unloading of two 40 foot containers in any position can be achieved by fast releasing of the connection of the cylinders of the two cranes, also one of the two 20 feet cranes can by lifted to its highest position i.e. in the unused position. The loading and unloading of a 40 feed container with 60 t weight or two 20 feet containers with 60 t can be achieved by another crane.

The fixing of containers to the two 40 feet container cranes is performed sequentially, i.e. at first the fixing and locking of containers by the first crane is performed, then the fixing and locking of containers by the second crane is performed. After the fixing and locking of the two 40 feet containers is confirmed, the two 40 feet containers are lifted and run at same time. If the gap between two 40 feet containers accidentally exceeds the stretch and contraction range of the cylinder then, at first the fixing of a container by one crane is performed, then the carrier is run so that the fixing of a container by the second crane can be operated, thus larger flexibility can be achieved.

If the weight of two 40 feet container exceeds 80 t and the operation of the two 40 feet containers can not be carried out at same time, the respective crane must be lifted and fixed to the highest position by the lifting mechanism, the operation of two 20 feet containers with 60 t weight or a single 40 feet container with 60 t weight may be carried out by another set of main lifting mechanism.

With reference to FIGS. 6 and 7, two sets of crane main lifting mechanisms can be synchronously operated by the main lifting wire rope winding system of the invention.

As shown in FIG. 7, the first crane lifting wire ropes 21 unwind from the winding barrel of the crane main lifting mechanism 7, run around the end pulley 22, around the first crane pulley group 5 on the carrier, to the first crane upper frame pulley 12, return to the first crane pulley group 5 on the carrier, and finally get in the end of the front main beam and connect to the turning device including two pulleys 23. The second crane lifting wire ropes 31 are respectively unwound from the winding barrel of the second crane main lifting mechanism 8, rum around the end pulley 32, around the second crane pulley group 6 on the carrier, to the second crane upper frame pulley 13, returned to the second crane pulley group 6 on the carrier, finally get in the end of the front main beam and connect to the turning device including two pulleys 33. 

1. A type of the container lifter being able to lift two 40 feet containers at a time, comprising a crane main lifting mechanism and the wire rope winding system, a crane, and pulleys arranged at a crane upper frame and the lifting pulley group arranged on a carrier, characterized in that it also further comprises a second crane main lifting mechanism, pulleys arranged at the second crane upper frame, a second crane lifting pulley group arranged on a carrier, and a main lifting wire rope winding system which simultaneously unites the first crane main lifting mechanism and the second crane main lifting mechanism being separate to each other; said first crane lifting mechanism and said second crane lifting mechanism are equipped with a barrel, a crane lifting mechanism motor, a brake and a lifting redection gear box respectively, the two crane main lifting mechanisms are synchronously operated, the approach and separation of the two cranes are achieved by the first crane and the second crane using a connection cylinder.
 2. The container lift being able to lift two 40 feat containers at a time according to claim 1, wherein the first crane lifting wire ropes of said main lifting wire rope winding system are respectively unwound from the barrel of the first crane lifting mechanism, urn around the end pulley, around the first crane pulley group on the carrier, to the first crane upper frame pulley, returned to the first crane pulley group on the carrier, finally get in the end of the main front beam and connect to the turning device; the second crane lifting wire ropes of said main lifting wire rope winding system are respectively unwound from a barrel of the second crane lifting mechanism, run around an end pulley, around a second crane pulley group on the carrier, to the second crane upper frame pulley, returned to the first crane pulley group on the carrier, finally get in the end of the main front beam and connect to the turning device. 